Exit Interview: Malena Annable

One of the most interesting things about working at Double Fine is how our staff is packed with people who’ve been through all sorts of adventures in the industry. Among our numbers remain a few old-school Double Finers who have been with the studio since basically the beginning. Whether it’s Kee Chi and his programming skills or the lovely artwork of Nathan “Bagel” Stapley, we’ve had many people here at Double Fine that you might call “fixtures.” Folks whose legacy can be traced all the way back to the original Psychonauts. One of these amazing people is Malena Annable, whose guiding hand as a producer has smoothed out development on many of our games throughout the years.

Malena recently left Double Fine after twenty years of amazing work to pursue a career that is pretty different from game development. She’s gone from wrangling Tim and making sure he submits his writing on deadline to working with saws and belt-sanders and renovating patios. Shifting from a world of computers to handiwork is a surprising jump! In the lead up to her new gig, I sat down with Malena to talk about her pathway to Double Fine, lessons learned here, and what’s next.

Malena, like a few folks at Double Fine, previously worked at LucasArts. This meant, of course, working on Star Wars games but it also meant some adventure titles like Escape from Monkey Island and the ill-fated Full Throttle 2. But Malena will be the first to say that her path to Double Fine was “atypical.” She knew of Tim by reputation but her path towards Double Fine rested with folks like Scott Campbell and Bagel, both of whom her husband Graham had made comics with. Scott eventually left Lucas Learning and made his way to Double Fine.

While her friendships kept her in the orbit of Double Fine, it wasn't until 2004 that Malena ended up working at the studio.

“It got to a point at LucasArts where I said I need to quit and I have nothing lined up and I’m miserable,” Malena explains. “I told [Psychonauts executive producer] Caroline Esmurdoc’s husband and he was like “Do you want to go to Double Fine?”

“I did an interview,” she recalls. “It’s not like I had a spiderweb of connections where everyone was just like “cool!” But I have to say it was amazing to come to Double Fine… they were like “Yeah, do all the things! Do it all! We’re not gonna stand in your way.” And I was like “Damn, you all have faith in me.”

Malena feels that interview process, which involved everyone at the entire studio, was emblematic of the studio’s attitude towards team-building early on. “Back then it was important everyone in the company had a say in who got hired,” Malena said. “I know we’re too big for that now, but I believe it was an early reason for our success… We hired people that had had a chance to prove themselves to & talk with everyone else at the company.”

Doublefine Hickee APE

If there’s something I hear a lot from folks describing the old days of Double Fine, it’s that there was a great deal of trust afforded to everyone working in those trenches on Psychonauts. For good and for ill, it really was that rock and roll style of game design where bouts of amazing creativity were taking things in amazing new directions and that sometimes meant ambitious scope from some folks who were still figuring out what this new era of game development would look like. Malena joined as an associate producer on Psychonauts and has remained a force helping to guide development, narrative, and voice production here at Double Fine ever since. Recalling Psychonauts, Malena remembers a process that certainly needed a bit more wrangling.

“I asked, "How long will this game be?” and they were like “we’re almost ready to ship” and I remember one point—I think it was a [build compilation] night so it was like one in the morning—and I said “you lied to me.” I started in July of 2004. We did our gold master in March or April of 2005.”

That whirlwind period from mid-July towards master was laser-focused on sharpening Psychonauts into one hell of a game. There were difficulties but it’s also a time that really defined what the Double Fine creative ethos was. Those late nights were shared by amazing members of the studio and the lasting effects of their hard work and their creative friendships extends all the way to Double Fine in the modern day.

“We felt that we were making something special,” Malena remembers. She paints a picture of mutual respect and trust running through the development of Psychonauts.

“It was really special to be shoulder to shoulder with people in the trenches,” she said. “There might have been a hierarchy but there was a pervading sense of humanity in how you treated people. So even if you disagreed with somebody, you ultimately came to a resolution that was for the better of the game and you never lost your sense of self or soul in that process.”

What exactly was the moment that Malena realized that Psychonauts was special? For Malena, that came late at night as she listened to Tim’s script come to life via voice actor recordings. It was one thing to see the lines as Tim worked through his writing but as she listened to seasoned voice actor Steve Blum (Cowboy Bebop, Star Wars Rebels) drone out lines from the the hilariously monotone G-men wandering Boyd Cooper’s mind in The Milkman Conspiracy, the humor really set in.

“That was a moment that touched my soul,” Malena recalls.

As a producer whose work often meant directly working with Tim and the script-writing process, Malena was both in the very thick of things at Double Fine but also in a unique position to observe the studio over the years. She compares the job to that of a detective finding clues and seeking out information. In some cases, that meant seeking out chaos and providing guardrails. Her work orbited programming, scripting, audio, and other fields and provided a good opportunity to see both the strengths and gaps in the studio’s structure over the years.

“For the last few weeks I've been documenting what I do,” Malena told me as the time to her departure drew closer. “And what I’m realizing is that… I wish we had a narrative department. Double Fine is known for witty writing and dialogue and my job has been to create a system that supports that but I wish it had been an actual department.”

We have a cadre of writers here at Double Fine from Tim himself to folks like Lee Petty and Gabe Cinquepalmi. Malena’s role and responsibilities are being spread to a few folks in the company. I don’t know if that means we’ll have a full department for narrative but it does open the door for more folks to get involved in that process much like Malena was. But that’s her main note for the studio as she leaves: narrative, baby!

But where the heck is Malena even going? That’s a unique situation as well. A recent house renovation for a screened-in back porch led to a desire to place cedar shingles on the exterior. That led to conversations with renovation professionals that ignited Malena’s desire to get her hands dirty. “I’ve spent a lot of time on Double Fine’s tools and now I’m going to spend time with power tools,” she mused. “I’ve been renovating Victorian porches and building decks."

Everyone seeks out new adventures from time to time. Game development is an exciting but not super stable field where you see folks depart from teams for all kinds of reasons. In Malena’s case, this is a chance to flex new creative muscles and work with a fresh team of innovative people. Except instead of designing levels, they’re helping to reshape homes.

“It makes my soul sing in the same way that Double Fine does,” she says. “But I might lose a finger.”

An image of Malena at the 2016 Holiday party alongside Tim, Ray Crook, Anna Kipnis, Kee Chi, Geoff Soulis, and Dave "Rusty" Russell.

When I asked Malena to sum up her experience with Double Fine in one word, there was some hesitation. Eventually, she decided that “humanity” was the right word for the job.

“There’s so much love at this studio. Even when it’s hard…it’s still been there. You can never stomp it out."

We will miss Malena deeply. She’s been a part of the studio’s DNA for two decades and her fingerprints are all over our games. Her insightful guiding hand helped make many projects truly great. I do not own a house but if I did, I would be like “Hey, Malena. What do you think about putting a fancy French-style extension here?” And she’ll probably explain the history of mahogany to me before getting to work and making the most beautiful thing ever. Because that’s what Malena Annable does: she makes things beautiful! Which is a very poetic way of saying that she’s pretty dang cool and always welcome at the company picnic.

Malena and Graham Annable running the bar on a DF Ski Trip

To conclude, I want to share a list that Malena made for a microtalk she gave on her last week. From time to time, we will have people at the studio give three minutes talk at our start-of-week meeting on Mondays. Topics can range from the history of regional cuisine to information on personal hobbies and more. Malena made a list of the ten things she will miss about Double Fine. I've condensed that list here! Enjoy.

Ten Things Malena Will Miss about Double Fine

The birthday cakes that the studio sends to folks on their birthdays. "I really appreciate that DF says "We like you, please eat something" with cake."

"It's a wardrobe & lifestyle." Double Fine folks end up with a variety of cool looking hoodies and other unique knick-knack that sometimes lead fans to get pretty excited when they bump into you on the street. "I will miss feeling like I’m part of an ultra exclusive club."

Parties & social outings. "We may have to work together, but we choose to hang out with one another."

Tim's concept of time. "First task when I started was to schedule a VO session, which also meant I needed Tim to write more. I carefully put together a calendar and showed it to Tim, who responded with, “Oh look, boxes with numbers.”

Our pet/animal picture sharing chat channel aka 'Thugz' "I thank you for finding the best the internet has to offer.."

Weekly 3 Minute Microtalks. "From James Marion’s inaugural “snowy owl” to Fiona’s Cincinnati chili – they’ve been hilarious, informative, and so very DF. They’re also a helluva lot of work... thank you for demonstrating so clearly that the world is full of things to know about and reinforcing that DF is filled with inquisitive and very smart people."

The laughter.  "No matter how serious the meeting, Tim still finds a way to make us laugh. And the laughter you hear throughout the office – at someone’s desk, or at lunch. Geoff’s laugh is probably one of the things that’ll get replayed as my life flashes before my eyes on my deathbed. And I mean that in the best possible way."

Parent Funtimes (our chatroom for parents) "Being a parent is really, really hard. You second guess yourself on the best of days and when imposter syndrome hits, it hits HARD.... The words of support and advice in parent-funtimes is REAL."

The mad dash up to shipping & post-release. "There’s a thrill and a high that comes when we’re firing on all cylinders as we near a game’s release date. And then the rush of good feelings as we watch the public play it. It is such a good feeling."

 DF's humanity – "All of the previous 9 items have one thread in common and it’s humanity. I’ll miss witnessing these daily moments – because what we do somehow adds up to more than the sum of its parts. I’ve said that about our games but it’s true of the studio as well. There’s a spark as we problem solve. There’s an infectious (in a good way) spirit as our games take shape & we build off one another’s work. DF has been a place that cares about people – we’re not just line items on a spreadsheet..."